Powerboats, without doubt, expose their drivers to a very substantial risk of injury or worse. Any untoward incidents occurring at the high speeds at which such boats travel can seriously jeopardize the driver's physical well being. For example, a collision with a stationary object in the water or with another boat could well cause serious injuries to the driver.
To minimize the probability of such a deleterious occurrence, powerboat manufacturers have attempted to provide some degree of protection for the driver. In particular, some have built safety shields within the cockpit to provide some resistance to collision for the driver. Thus, many cockpits of powerboats will include, inside, a shell of a relatively hard material that will reduce collapsing of the boat's nose in the immediate vicinity of the driver in a collision.
However, incorporating the additional safety shield involves an extra step in the manufacture of the boat itself. This increases the coat of the boat as well as the time required to complete the building of the boat.
Further, the shield represents an additional component of the boat and itself possesses substantial weight. Thus, incorporating the shield into the boat increases the overall weight of the vehicle. In powerboats, the additional weight will result in a slower speed and thus a disdvantage in the competition for which the boat is built.
Additionally, mishaps do occur with powerboats. The damage suffered during such accidents by a boat may involve not only the exterior skin but also the safety shell of the cockpit itself. Accordingly, repairing the boat will require additional operations to ameliorate the condition of the safety shell as well as the external skin. Furthermore, obtaining access to the safety shell may require purposely damaging the external skin in order to obtain a sufficient opening to the cockpit shell. Accordingly, for all of these reasons, the search for an improved powerboat that will protect its driver continues.